Oh dear, I played with some Ulead software once... once. Perhaps if Microsoft paid me $1,000, I might try it again.
Funny, I feel the same way about buying another Mac
Apple would have to pay me to take another.
I had that MacBook with the GMA 950 for almost two years. I sold it for $800 and that covered a large portion of the cost of my Unibody MacBook Pro. Resale value on a 2 year old computer, higher than the value of a new 17" HP laptop. That should tell you something right there.
Yeah, that tells me that people are stupid. The current white plastic MacBook isn't even worth $600, the UniBody MacBook at $1299 should only be sold at about $800.
HP was a company with a mindset not that much different than Apple's. They made the finest test and measurement equipment. Woz used to work for them. Now they make $699 laptops. How much do you think that thing will be worth in 2 years?
It really doesn't matter how much its worth. Why? Because its something that person will use until it can no longer run current software. By that point value won't mean anything. Not everyone plans to sell their computers years after buying them. Likewise, only Apple fanatics even consider buying secondhand computers. I sure wouldn't. No sensible person would. I buy a computer to use it until it no longer works. My experience with Apple's build quality and HP's build quality leads me to believe that HP will last longer than an Apple system.
I mean, honestly, Apple's resale quality only flies with Apple fans. I show people used MacBooks like the one you described going for that similar price and they say things like "why would anyone buy that when you can get a more powerful PC for the same price with more features and a bigger screen?" and its true. Don't try to tell me "reliability", because I know from experience thats not true. Don't try to tell me OS X either, because I know from experience that OS X is no better than Vista.
Right so that woman got the HP for $699
she will also need...
And now the nonsense begins.
Norton Anti Virus= $50.00
AVG is better and its free. But you don't even need anti-virus/spyware/whatever these days as long as you're not a dolt. Firefox, IE7 and IE8, as well as Windows itself will all warn you multiple times if you're trying to execute malicious code.
Windows Vista Ultimate= $200.00
Why does she need Vista Ultimate? It already comes with Vista Home Premium 64-bit. Ultimate only has a couple of things that Home Premium doesn't. Likewise, owning a Vista Home Premium and Leopard system myself, I can tell you that Home Premium does a lot that Leopard does not. Modern things like taking advantage of the GPU for video playback. Vista Home Premium is every bit equal to Leopard and even more advanced in many ways.
MS Office 2007 Ultimate $350.00
Whats wrong with OpenOffice? Why does she need an office suite to begin with? That HP system ships with MS Works anyway, so she doesn't need to upgrade to anything else. If she did need to upgrade, OpenOffice is just fine.
Then software comparable to Apple's iLife
Sony Vegas= $220
Nero DVD suite= $100.00
Why does she need software comparable to iLife? I've owned a Mac for a couple of years now and everything except iPhoto has been completely useless to me. In fact, I'd rather have the option of buying the Mac at a lower cost WITHOUT the iLife suite. Let me buy iPhoto separately.
Also, you're wrong about a few things. First, if you even look up Sony Vegas software, it starts at $55. Secondly, if someone bought a digital video camera, then it already includes video editing software that is every bit as powerful (minus image stabilization) as iMovie '09.
And why are you including Nero? Nothing like Nero is included with OS X. Nero's closest competitor on the Mac is Toast, which is not included with OS X. Toast is just a joke compared to Nero. A very pathetic joke. Compared to Nero, if Toast was a bad joke being told by a comedian, it would be so bad it would ruin that comedian's career. Thats how bad Toast is compared to Nero.
CuBase? Are you serious? First off, Garageband is a joke. Secondly:
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/SessionwithFastTrackUSB.html if you need that sort of thing. Most people do not. Go ask your average Mac user how much of the iLife suite they use besides iPhoto and I guarantee you that nearly all of them will say "none of it".
Adobe Lightroom? Are you kidding me? Picassa, Windows Live Photo Gallery, HP Photosmart Essentials and countless others are every bit as good as iPhoto when it comes to organizing, printing, minor editing, etc. Even better, some of them let you make all of those fancy photo books like iPhoto does, but instead of making you pay for overpriced books you have no control over the design with, you get to control EVERY aspect of the design and print it out yourself to put in your own book of your own choosing. Or you can take it to a much lower cost than Apple company to get it printed.
or she could get a 15'' MacBook Pro with a much superior graphics card with everything thrown in and spend like $79 for iWork.
The entry level MacBook Pro doesn't even have GPU on-par with systems costing less than half as much.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220488 Look at that. Half the cost of the MacBook Pro. The only downside is the 1280x800 screen. But the upside? 14.1", 4GB of RAM, 320GB 7200 RPM HDD, same 2.4GHz Core 2 duo, 1GB GeForce 9650M GT, DVD writer, Fingerprint Reader, full size ExpressCard, LED backlight, 5 USB, eSATA, HDMI and VGA (no dongles required!), as well as digital audio out through the HDMI output and headphone jack, Bluetooth, 8 in 1 memory card reader, webcam, etc. etc.1 year accidental damage warranty, 30 day zero bright dot warranty on the screen, and 2 years of standard warranty.
So for the same price as the entry level MacBook with the awful plastic case that will crack in multiple places (I know from experience), you have more power than the MacBook Pro, more expandability options, and a proportionally smaller and more portable system.
People think PC's are cheaper, but they aint its because your getting less stuff with it. PLus you also need to take into consideration repairs and if it breaks via getting a virus lol.
Breaks getting a virus
Someone is much less likely to get a virus in todays world than you are to have your plastic MacBook in your signature crack. I know from experience, that plastic MacBook will crack no matter how good you treat it. However, with updated Windows XP and Vista, it is damn near impossible for the average person to get malware unless they ignore multiple warnings from multiple pieces of software and levels of security.
Same principle with macs & PC's you get what you pay for
With Apple you do not get what you pay for. You get much lower end hardware with far fewer capabilities, an OS that isn't as capable as the competition (wheres my blu-ray support?), and warranty support that only helps you if you live in an area with extremely strong consumer protection laws.
Apple is basically the Bose of computing. You pay double what you would compared to competing products yet you get half as much and its not built half as good.
Now, after studying the commercial, and identifying the same computer she purchases, it's revealed her computer is certainly meant to be cheap: the tech specs are horrible.
How are the specs horrible? You get twice the RAM compared to the $300 more expensive MacBook, same type of RAM. You get 200GB more HDD space. The processor, a 2.1GHz Turion X2, is about 15% behind an equivalently clocked Core 2 Duo. Not exactly the snail people make them out to be. Considering the cost savings, they're fast processors for the money. The integrated graphics are on par with a GeForce 8400M GS, which means the GPU performance is about half that in UniBody MacBook, and about 3/4 in the white MacBook (thanks to the DDR2 RAM choking both). The screen resolution is a little low, I'll admit. However, the MacBook Pro 15.4" screen has a lower resolution compared to nearly every 15.4" and 16" notebook in the $1,000 and up range.
and it comes with no additional software, aside from trial versions and annoying demo programs that she'll have to uninstall anyway.
Well, if you had actually done what you said and researched the computer she bought, you'd know otherwise.
You know that it only has two pieces of trialware. Norton and an MS Office trial. Everything else is full version, including Cyberlink's DVD Suite and Microsoft Works.
As the laptop she purchases doesn't come with Microsoft Office, she's going to spend at least $150 to type her papers.
No, she doesn't. It comes with Microsoft Works. If thats not good enough, OpenOffice is MS Office compatible and completely 100% free.
Also, seeing as PCs are prone to viruses and spyware, she's going to need protection software, which usually has to be paid annually (often upwards of $130 per year).
Not true. Unless shes an incredibly stupid person, it is near impossible for the average user to get malware of any type these days. Browsers, plus the OS itself as well as security software built-in to Windows will try to stop her from downloading and executing malware of any kind. So, again, unless shes somewhat dumb, thats not going to happen. If she did need that, however, AVG and AdAware are both free and even better than the paid stuff.
And in the case there's ever a time Lauren needs to edit a video for a group project in one of her classes, it'll be practically impossible as few editing programs are going to run on a computer as slow as the one she's purchased (and she's looking at probably $40 for a program, if not more).
Not at all. The packed in Muvee Reveal full version and Cyberlink DVD Suite
http://www.cyberlink.com/multi/products/main_33_en_US.html will take care of all of her video needs.
With a Mac, sure you're going to spend some additional money, but it would still meet her needed specifications and more. That "more" is what sets Macs apart from the competition: top-of-the-line hardware components, incredibly well designed software that has few problems, and great support when issues do arise. And thats putting it vaguely, the amazing stuff is what you can do out of the box.
What top of the line hardware components? Apple uses the same RAM as HP. They use the same Western Digital, Seagate, Toshiba, Hitachi, Fujitsu, etc. HDDs as everyone else. They use the same Panasonic and LG DVD writers as everyone else. They use the same Intel processors and nvidia chipsets as everyone else. You won't find anything in a Mac that isn't already in an HP or Dell or anything else.
I beg to differ about the "Well designed software that has very few problems", seeing as how I've had OS X crash more times in the two years I've owned it than I've had Windows crashed in the nearly 2 decades I've been using it.
Great support? Thats why, in the 2 years I've owned a Mac, I was without a Mac for a full combined total of two months due to botched repairs that were needed because of bad build quality?
And thats the key thing: Lauren will never know what she could have done if she had a Mac. So is the additional cost of a Mac worth it? Once again, it depends on what Lauren wants to do with it. For the simple tasks we're assuming she wants to complete (word processing, Internet access, and playing music), her $699 PC will accomplish what she wants to do, albeit some drawbacks.
And what would she have been able to do with a Mac that can't be done on a PC? I can think of a few things a PC can do that a Mac can't. Like watch blu-ray discs.
Her computer will be slow, meaning that she'll have to wait (literally) several minutes just to have it startup.
Oh please, thats just wrong. I have a 2GHz Core 2 Duo running on the Santa Rosa platform in my PC and Vista only takes around 48 seconds to fully boot, thats from power button press to IP address acquired. My friend's PC, which is similar to hers but with a dedicated GPU, has the same processor and Vista takes about 50 seconds to load on it.
Opening programs, or even simply folders and files, will take time as the computer reads the information.
Whys that? She has the same 320GB 5400RPM drive included in the MacBook Pro! And like i said, in the real world, that Turion X2 2.1GHz is only slightly slower than an equally clocked Core 2 Duo. If you put it up against a 2GHz Core 2 Duo, like I have with my friend's machine, you'll find that the difference between the two when doing CPU intensive tasks, like encoding video, is only seconds to completion.
Videos she watches on YouTube may skip
Thats just ridiculous and pure FUD. Flash in Windows is a lot more efficient and requires much less CPU time than it does in OS X. Her computer is fully capable of playing back any video content in any form, she could add a blu-ray drive and it would have no problem playing blu-ray movies.
and songs she listens to in iTunes might take a moment to respond to her clicking the "play" button.
Thats because iTunes is slow and bloated, not because the Turion X2 is slightly slower than a Core 2 Duo. Unless she has an iPod, theres no reason for her to use iTunes in Windows. Shes better off with Winamp.
And of course, the security of her computer is always at risk on a PC. The typical college girl isn't going to know what sites are considered "legitimate" and what isn't. So when she Google searches for "watch tv shows online", and comes across a site that promises her all episodes of Grey's Anatomy provided she installs their plugin, Lauren is going to do so without a second thought. Soon her computer starts running slow -- reeeeally slow -- or popups are occurring each time she turns it on, if it turns on at all. The virus protection software she purchased does nothing to fix this problem, and she takes it to a local computer store for help. They'll her $75 to reinstall Windows Vista, erasing the computer entirely. If she wants her personal files backed up so she doesn't lose them in the process (any of her papers, pictures she's taken, music she listens to), it's an additional $40. (And that's a cheap price; Best Buy, for example, charges $129 for reinstall and $99 for backup!)
Oh please. This made me roll my eyes.
Unlike Safari, Firefox and Internet Explorer have had phishing/counterfeit website protection built-in for YEARS now. And if she tries to install malicious software, shes going to get multiple warnings from IE7/8 or Firefox, as well as multiple warnings from Windows and Windows Defender. She'd have to be pretty stupid to install the software after a dozen or so warnings telling her its harmful to her computer.
This situation doesn't happen on a Mac. Period.
And it doesn't happen on a PC either. It only happens in the imaginations of Apple fans. Not in the real world.
Apple sells computers that work every time. And if, for some reason, something doesn't, they'll fix it. But in Lauren's case, she doesn't know any better. Unless some of her friends have Macs, or until the point she gets fed up with her PC, she'll just accept the problems that plague her laptop as "normal computer stuff".
Just like Apple fans accept the fact that the plastic MacBooks and previous generation MacBook Pros were built terribly? They pass it off as "normal" and try to convince themselves that its all "normal" and still "better than a PC" even though none of the build quality issues associated with any model Mac (condensation, denting, scratching, warping, bending) happen with PCs.
However, as I said, none of the things you've described will happen. Thats nothing more than FUD that only exists in your world.
That's the thing: typical PC users don't know what constitutes a better computer until they've seen something that catches their eye. When they realize that Macs don't deal with the same issues they've dealt with using PCs, that's when they consider the switch.
Then they look at the price and realize they can get much more powerful hardware for less than half the cost.
So while the Mac may certainly cost more initially, the total cost of ownership of the PC can turn out quite a bit more than originally thought
Nonsense.
Lauren spent about $700 on a new laptop which came with no software for what she wanted to accomplish (according to our example). She'd have to spend an additional $315 on programs that she later found out she needed (Microsoft Word, virus protection -- paid annually, and a video editing application).
Let's see.. it comes loaded with multiple video and DVD editing and burning applications, as well as Microsoft works. It also comes with Windows Photo Gallery and there are loads of other iPhoto equal photo apps out there that are free. Oh and AVG, OpenOffice, etc. are free. So she spends NOTHING on software.
But despite taking care of her computer, she's still a typical PC user, and experiences the same, typical frustrations PC users face: slowness, bugs, additional costs, and viruses.
The same way Mac users face systems warping and cracking from heat, kernel panics, file system failures needing permissions repaired, etc. right? The PC won't slow down, Vista has no more bugs than Leopard (I've lost count of how many times Leopard has crashed on me for no reason), there are no additional costs, and viruses only occur if you are not the most intelligent person in the world.
This leads her to spend more of her money: $75 for a reinstall of Vista, plus $40 to backup her files. We're at $1135 at total cost of ownership for a machine that originally cost $699.
In imagination land, Yes. In reality, no.
